


Tell-Tale

by incogneat_oh



Series: Tell-Tale [1]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Bruce Wayne as the elephant in every room, Failed Attempts At Bonding, Some profanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 09:57:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10534107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incogneat_oh/pseuds/incogneat_oh
Summary: " 'Hey,' Jason calls, and Tim turns around with a start. Looks surprised he’s been addressed at all. And Jason says, 'You tell ‘im, Babybird. He feels guilty he doesn’t love you.' "Or, the kids compete to see who should give Bruce bad news. But Jason doesn't take Tim and Bruce's fractured relationship into account.





	

Dick flops onto the sofa.   
  
Jay kicks out at him without a second thought, doesn’t bother to look away from the screen. His pink tongue peeks out at the side of his mouth in concentration, thumbs working furiously against the game controller. Brow furrowed.  
  
“He was in such a good mood,” the elder sighs, retaliating with a cushion toss. It lacks conviction. “Why’d it have to be tonight?” And he reaches out, pats Jason’s shoulder in what’s supposed to be comfort, says, “How d'you think he’s gonna take it, when you tell him?”  
  
“Fuck off,” Jason says, without heat. Shrugs off the hand automatically. “No way’s it my job.”  
  
“Damian,” Dick says, with cheer. Smiles winningly at where the ten year old sits reading in an overstuffed chair. “You’ll tell B he’s having dinner with Vicki Vale, right? It’s only fair, I mean, you’re his biological kid. You know. Automatically superior.”  
  
“You have a longer history with father than I,” Damian says, unfazed. “You tell him.”  
  
“Dickie’s right,” Jason says, then, “And  _damn_  if that doesn’t hurt to say. But you know, you’re smallest, and can be endearing when you’re not actively tryin’ to kill people. Play that up.”  
  
“Insinuate I’m  _cute_  again and I will actively try to kill  _you_ , Todd,” says Damian, tossing his book down. “Besides, Father  _owes_  you. You tell him.”  
  
Jason pauses the game, throws down the controller. And they glance at one another, him, Dick and Damian. A competition.  
  
“You’re smallest, Alfred’ll protect you.”  
  
“Father is perpetually annoyed with Grayson anyway, he should do it.”  
  
Dick turns to Jason, tells him, “He wants your forgiveness. He won’t get pissed at you.”  
  
Damian, the traitor, nods, like that’s a good point.  
  
The Replacement’s in a far corner of the room, studiously ignoring them all. Has been typing away at his laptop, concentrating, for the last two hours. And he suddenly closes his computer, stands, and crosses the room, heading for the door. Like they aren’t there.   
  
“Hey,” Jason calls, and Tim turns around with a start. Looks surprised he’s been addressed at all. And Jason says, “You tell ‘im, Babybird. He feels guilty he doesn’t love you.”  
  
And for this split second, the kid’s face goes frozen and still and  _horrified_ , and all Jason can think is  _shit shit shit FUCK_ , because– it was just a stupid  _joke_ , he didn’t account for the kid's… low self-esteem of what-the-fuck-ever-else this is supposed to be, he was just– he didn’t even mean it, goddamn, but he looks like he’s been stabbed in the  _gut_ –  
  
The expression lasts for less than a second, and the Babybird’s face cracks into this horrible, unnatural smile, rolls his eyes. And Jason wants nothing more than to take it back, but the kid’s playing it off like he knows it was a joke when he  _clearly doesn’t_ , and anyway, the damage’s been done, it’s not– it’s, it’s fucking  _Bruce’s_  fault, lets the guy go around thinking no one gives a shit about him, and whatever Jason could say now would just make things worse, and there’s guilt twitching deep in his gut, deeper even than the Pit.   
  
And Dick didn’t even notice, is arguing cheerfully with the brat still, while his precious kid brother’s heart is breaking on his sleeve. He stands there for a minute, forcing his body to loosen up. Straight, white teeth showing in this parody of a smile.   
  
Dick hits Jason’s shoulder, demands his attention. Startled, he jumps, turns quickly. And when he looks back a split second later, Tim’s vanished.  
  
  
He doesn’t leave for a few hours after that, Jason knows. Hovers around the edges of conversations and laughs in the right places, smiles convincingly. Ignores Jason’s glances.  
  
And Jason himself would be fooled if he hadn’t seen the kid’s face, can’t bring himself to be surprised when Tim slips away with a mumbled excuse to Alfred, grabbing his jacket on the way out.   
  
  
–  
  
When Tim gets back to his apartment, he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself. There’s this sort of stuttering pain in his chest, and it’s stupid, he knows it’s stupid, because–  
  
It’s not like he hadn’t  _known_. He’d come to terms with it long ago. Every day, until it wasn’t really something he even thought about anymore. He wasn’t a  _child_  anymore, he'd– he’d  _accepted_  it, had abandoned his childish hopes and fantasies.   
  
He knew he wasn’t Bruce’s  _son_ , not like, not like any of the others, and. He even knows Bruce doesn’t love him, doesn’t want him around. He certainly made it clear enough.  
  
But–  
  
To hear Jason say it like that–  
  
_Casually_ , like it’s  _common knowledge_ , like it's– like it’s  _nothing_ , and, Tim knows it’s stupid, he does, but he’d hoped that no one else had known.  
  
No one else had picked up on this secret shame of his, that he couldn’t make anyone love him. Not his parents, or Bruce, and–  
  
And Jason had said it in front of everyone, in front of  _Dick_ , and there’s this pool of shame growing hot in his gut, because this whole time he’d been  _pretending_  that no one else knew.   
  
Tim was so sure he had grown out of his games of pretend.   
  
It’s stupid, he knows, it is. They were, all of them, trained by the Bat. And it isn’t like it’s a secret. It’s in the files, between the lines. It's– the way Bruce (doesn’t) talk to him, the way Bruce (never) touches him, the way he (rarely) looks at him. No. It’s not a secret.   
  
But all the same, he’d hoped, childishly, that Jason didn’t know, hadn’t figured it out. That  _Dick_  hadn’t, but–  
  
Of course he did. He chose Damian, didn’t he?   
  
Tim just feels nauseous and overwhelmingly stupid.  
  
  
He had so hoped he’d grown up.  
  
–  
**-END-**

**Author's Note:**

> Also on [tumblr.](http://incogneat-oh.tumblr.com/post/26502619704/tell-tale-drabble)


End file.
